Heather is an Emmy-winning filmmaker and a Guggenheim, Sundance, and Fulbright fellow. Her film WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM won an Emmy (POV), an Independent Spirit Award, and a SXSW Jury Award. Her recent feature documentary, BREAKING THE NEWS, premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2023, won the David Carr Award for Truth in Filmmaking at the Montclair Film Fest, and had its broadcast and streaming premiere on PBS’ Independent Lens in February 2024. Her latest short documentary, FOR THE RECORD, about an editor trying to save her family’s newspaper in rural Texas, premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and has screened at DC/DOX, New Orleans Film Fest, and the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival, among others. The film had its streaming and broadcast premiere on PBS Reel South in May 2024.
Her earlier films include the Ford-funded feature doc THE UNAFRAID, which was broadcast on the national PBS series America ReFramed; LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE (supported by a Fulbright, premiered at Slamdance Film Festival, and aired on PBS); and LOS TRABAJADORES (IDA Award, SXSW Audience Award, and Indie Lens broadcast).
Prior to receiving her MFA in Film, Heather spent eight years writing and photographing for the United Nations and several relief agencies, including in the Rwandan refugee camps after the 1994 genocide there. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their recently adopted 8-year-old pit bull, but is from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and is proud to call herself a Yooper.